The succeeding film critique of While You Were Sleeping will discuss genre theory, specifically romantic comedies, and the conventions that make up this movie, such as mise en scene, lighting, characters, theme, and plot. This film critique will analyze the movie through the lens of genre theory.
While You Were Sleeping is a romantic comedy that was released in 1995. This film was directed by Jon Turteltaub with Phedon Papamichael as the director of photography. As with all of her work, While You Were Sleeping shows Sandra Bullock playing the main character (Lucy) that is a little shy and withdrawn. She then becomes involved with the male lead (Jack) in the movie which is played by Bill Pullman. Bill is not as famous as Sandra but has the personality of his character in the film. He plays the tall, dark, and handsome male role and always gets the girl. While You Were Sleeping is a romantic comedy about a girl named Lucy (Sandra Bullock) who believes in love and pretends to be engaged with Peter (Peter Gallagher) who falls into a coma at the subway
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station where she works. Through a series of miscommunications Lucy finds herself involved in the family, she always wanted. As Peter is in a coma, she grows close to the family and especially with Peter’s brother, Jack (Bill Pullman). While the story unfolds, Lucy begins to regret lying to the family. Peter wakes up from his coma and does not know who Lucy is; his family suspects amnesia. Jack doesn’t believe Lucy’s story and thinks it is a hoax, which he finds out to be true. The two find themselves falling for each other and need to find a way to be together. Genre theory is the breakdown of movies into categories that are related to the meaning of the film. Goodykoontz & Jacobs (2014) explain genres “lead viewers to have certain expectations about what the movie will be like before actually watching it” (4.1). Theorist ask if genres are meaningful, but “they are extremely important, because they are, in varying degrees, how studios categorize the films they make—and how audiences categorize the films they want to see. Labeling a film with any given genre immediately creates certain expectations in viewers, making them more or less likely to want to see that film” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014, 4.1). Romantic comedies are movies that employ “Light-hearted, humorous story involving people in love, sometimes overlapping with subgenres such as screwball comedy, teen comedy, or gross-out comedy” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014, 4.1). The primary convention in a romantic comedy which is a subcategory of comedy is to have a romance blossom and the story unfold throughout the movie into the happy ending. Attributes of this genre are usually, the couple, the dream relationship, a fight or argument, then the happily ever after as the finale. Mostly, “specific romantic media genres might be differentially associated with idealized romantic beliefs” (Lippman, et al, 2014, p. 130). Romantics that accept these views will likely choose to watch romantic comedies and expect to have feelings of love for the couple in the movie. One genre convention that is exhibited in the film is a romantic couple.
In this story, you think the couple is Lucy and Peter, but we learn that it is Lucy and Jack that are really in love. All romantic movies have to have a couple that falls in love, and this happens in While You Were Sleeping. Romantic couples in movies “construct an idealized view of relationships as containing all the sparks and passion of new love, but also all the devotion and sacrifice of longer-term relationships” (Lippman, et al. 2014, p. 129). Another convention used is a type of fight or argument that causes the couple to disengage with each other to make up later in the movie. Specifically, when Peter wakes up from his coma and Lucy is giving him attention and trying to continue the fake story of their engagement. Jack wants his brother to be happy, so he decides to stay away from Lucy and let the two be
together. The last convention, which is of particular importance, is the happy ending. Even though the story takes a turn away from what viewers thought would happen there is a great conclusion. Lucy and Jack end up together, and Lucy has the family she always dreamed about. The term that most think of with a happy ending is marriage. Continuing, “marriage" in the sense in which that idea functions symbolically and structurally in the Film Critique: as the replacement of the instabilities and confusions of the erotic by a realm of placid domesticity, as the advent of an idealized stasis ("happily ever after") that ends the temporality of the plot” (Allen, 1999, p. 79). The movie employs the use of lighting, set design, and hair and makeup to enhance the Christmas theme. There are several different types of lighting used in the movie, and they work well to showcase the theme. One scene that uses an essential lighting technique is the walk through the city. When Jack’s truck gets blocked in, he decides to walk Lucy home. During the walk, we see the city lights and Christmas lights in the background behind the actors. Three-point lighting is with the characters the whole time and follows them on the walk. The appearance of the light gives the illusion that the moon is lighting the scene, which makes it romantic for the audience to watch. The lighting provides shadows in the background for the people and things that are not focused on in the scene. Snow, Christmas lights, music, trees, and garland are all parts of the set design that contribute to the Christmas theme of the movie. All of the elements work together to get the audience in the spirit of the holiday. There is a major Christmas scene where Lucy joins Peter’s whole family for their holiday dinner. They take pictures together and give each other presents. When Lucy receives a present, she feels like part of the family and is extremely joyful. She doesn’t even need to open the present to portray how she feels about it. The scene is perfect for enhancing the Christmas idea, as this is typical for this type of theme. The mise en scene is extensive in this movie. Notably, “Without a single line of dialogue, or any actions on the part of the actors, the mise en scène can convey a great deal of story information about the plot or character that might take pages to describe in a novel” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014, 5.2). I think everything that needs to be in a Christmas scene is portrayed in some way throughout the movie. Goodykoontz & Jacobs (2014) continue by explaining “many elements of the mise en scène may be symbolic, whether representing story themes or character attributes” (5.2). This is the case for the movie While You Were Sleeping as every main scene portrays Christmas by the lighting, decorations, and even the music being played. Without the enhancement of the Christmas elements, this movie would seem gloomy and lack the major elements of a romantic comedy. To emphasize, “Arguably the most easily noticeable aspect of mise-en-scene is costume. Costume can include both makeup or wardrobe choices used to convey a character’s personality or status” (Martin, 2014, p. 78). Another important design element is the hair and makeup for the main character Lucy. At the beginning of the movie, she is shown as gloomy and sloppy. She pulls her hair back as more of a convenience, but it makes her look untidy. An employee that works in the public eye every day should not do this. She wears the same comfy sweater when she is home and dresses like she doesn’t care about her appearance at all. Her dull makeup portrays the fact that she is not happy with her life. As the movie progresses, Lucy begins to wear makeup and pays a little more attention to how she appears to others. The main Christmas scene shows her makeup as bright and glowing which allows the audience to know she is happy. As she grows to like the family more, she dresses to impress them by wearing her hair down, so they like her back. The character develops from a gloomy unhappy woman to a beautiful glowing bride, which is all done with hair and makeup changes. The societal impact of While You Were Sleeping was positive and left viewers with feelings of love and possibilities of happiness. This movie was made as just another way to entice viewers to get to the theaters. There isn’t a strong social impact besides the income classifications between the characters. Lucy is a low income employee who falls in love with a rich lawyer. Peter would clearly treat Lucy as beneath him and never give her a second glance without the strange circumstances that occur. The personal impact I felt from this movie is that true love will always find a way. Circumstances don’t always have to be perfect for two people to meet and be together. To conclude, Romantic comedies are subcategories of comedies which utilize many conventions that allow viewers to know what they will be in store for before the movie begins. Including, the elements of lighting, set design, and hair and makeup all work together to provide the theme of the movie While You Were Sleeping. Lighting allows the movie to keep up with the topic of the holidays with Christmas lights in the background in all of the outdoor scenes. Usually, “mise en scène refers to all of the elements within a shot” (Greven, 2015, p. 77) and the set designs provide the necessary props that also relate to the theme. The hair and makeup help the main character develop from a gloomy looking miserable person into the glamorous glowing bride by the end of the movie. Many romantics will find themselves connecting with the movie on a personal level and sink into the feelings of love and happiness. They will either increase their current relationship romance or dream of finding this one day. However viewers look at romantic comedies, they will feel compelled to enjoy the couple, the relationship with its ups and downs, and the happy ending. Lucy and Jack in While You Were Sleeping leave the audience feeling in love and believing in happy ever after because it follows the Film Critique conventions that make it a great romance. The next time you are in the mood for date night, you should watch this movie and feel the emotional connection for yourself.
In a scene, Lucy, the main character, spends more time with Jack, the brother of her crush, Peter, who is in a coma, which causes her to have more feelings for Jack than Peter. (Turteltaub). This scene explains that when a person spends more time with someone else, they grow disinterest in their original crush. This shows that if Lucy keeps on spending time with Jack, then she might forget about her feelings for Peter. Also, theme is also restated when Lucy is forced to spend time with Peter, after his coma, even though she clearly has fallen for Jack. (Turteltaub). This shows that people do fall in love with another person if they spend too much time with them. This means that Lucy has grown more feelings for Jack than for Peter. And lastly, during Lucy’s marriage to Peter, she objected to her own wedding, told Peter’s parents that she had fallen for Jack and lied to them about her being Peter’s fiancé. (Tureltaub). This exemplifies that it’s not too late to listen to your heart and say what you mean. This demonstrates that even though it was her dream to marry Peter, she knew in her heart that she belonged with Jack. This concludes that, While You Were Sleeping, directed by Jon Turteltaub, shows in the movie that people should express those certain feelings before it’s too
Horror genre conventions are evident in both films and the way they are directed has given me obvious indications on the effect the horror conventions can have on a film when used well, and the adverse effect when not used well. Both Japanese and American society are evident in these films, and the style of the films are similar to the nationality of the two directors. Horror conventions are used in both films, but the way they are used are quite different, and these contrasting styles are key in how effective the two films are to their audience.
Film Noir is a genre of distinct and unique characteristics. Mostly prominent in the 40s and 50s, the genre rarely skewed from the skeletal plot to which all Film Noir pictures follow. The most famous of these films is The Big Sleep (1946) directed by Howard Hawks. This film is the go to when it comes to all the genre’s clichés. This formula for film is so well known and deeply understood that it is often a target for satire. This is what the Coen brothers did with 1998’s The Big Lebowski. This film follows to the T what Film Noir stands for.
Barry, , Keith, and Grant, ed. Film Genre Reader III. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press,
“The Sleep” by Caitlin Horrocks is a short story, written in the first person. In this short story the Rasmussen family lives in a small town called Bounty, which seems to be someplace that is very dark and cold in the winter season, most likely someplace north. The Rasmussen family are going through hard times with the sudden death and the tragic loss of Al’s wife and their children’s mother. The family decides to take the winter season off from work and school in order to sleep, Al seem to believe that this will help heal the family. The people of Bounty see how well the sleep worked for the Rasmussen family, so some of them decide to do the same thing the next winter season. People usually sleep when they are depressed, the
Have you ever been so focused on achieving your dreams that you become unaware of your current situation? When we focus on the goals ahead of us, we fail to see the obstacles and dangers that are in front of us. In order to achieve our goals we involuntarily put ourselves in an unwanted situation. Connie, herself, struggles to achieve her goal of being a desirable girl that turns heads when she walks into the room. She becomes so set on being this girl that she doesn’t realize the danger of the situation. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates utilizes metaphors, diction, and imagery to show how Connie is in a constant tug between her reality and her dreams, and how this confines her freedoms in a world that is surrounded with malevolence.
Suspense is a 1913 film that portrays the story of a tramp intruding into a family’s home, where a mother takes care of her child while her husband is away. The plot is a common one that had been used previous times before the film’s release, such as in The Lonely Villa (1909). However, through taking advantage of the single frame shot, the filmmakers were able to create a masterful aesthetic of two separate stories that turn a basic plot into a complex story. The film created an inventive way of illustrating stories within cinema by allowing the audience the chance to consume more narrative in less time within just one take.
The short story "Where are you going, where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates is full of symbolism that represents elements such as evil and loss of innocence. The symbolism is a crucial part of the story because it helps the reader to read between the lines and see beyond the obvious meanings of things. Some of the important symbols present in this story are Arnold's car, Arnold himself, and the doorway of Connie's family's house.
For this assignment I have chosen to analyze a scene from the 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums, directed by West Anderson, where Richie Tenembaum, portrayed by Luke Wilson, attempts to commit suicide. This scene provides a shift from the previously established editing style of the film, its mood, pace, and camera movement as the filmmaker presents the climax in this one character’s story. This is done through the use of a specific mise en scène and an editing style which conveys the emotion behind the character’s actions.
Film scholars around the world agree that all genres of film are part of the “genre cycle”. This cycle contains four different stages that a specific genre goes through. These stages are: primitive, classic, revisionist, and parody. Each stage that the genre goes through brings something different to that genre’s meaning and what the audience expects. I believe that looking at the horror genre will be the most beneficial since it has clearly gone through each stage.
Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren is one of the most intriguing and significant experimental films of the 1940’s. Maya Deren is a surrealist experimental filmmaker who explores themes like yearning, obsession, loss and mortality in her films. In Meshes of the Afternoon, Maya Deren is highly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theory of expressing the realms of the subconscious mind through a dream. Meshes of the Afternoon, is a narration of her own experience with the subconscious mind that draws the viewers to experience the events being played out rather than just merely showing the film. I chose Maya Deren for my research because her intriguing sense gives viewers an enthralling experience by taking them to a different, semi-real world of the subconscious mind. Meshes of the Afternoon not only reveals Deren’s success in a male dominant arena, but also provides a sensational and escalating experience for the spectators.
The Alfred Hitchcock film; Vertigo is a narrative film that is a perfect example of a Hollywood Classical Film. I will be examining the following characteristics of the film Vertigo: 1)individual characters who act as casual agents, the main characters in Vertigo, 2)desire to reach to goals, 3)conflicts, 4)appointments, 5)deadlines, 6)James Stewart’s focus shifts and 7)Kim Novak’s characters drives the action in the film. Most of the film is viewed in the 3rd person, except for the reaction shots (point of view shot) which are seen through the eyes of the main character.(1st person) The film has a strong closure and uses continuity editing(180 degree rule). The stylistic (technical) film form of Vertigo makes the film much more enjoyable. The stylistic film form includes camera movements, editing, sound, mise-en-scene and props.
In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” she uses the structure of her poem and rhetoric as concrete representation of her abstract beliefs about death to comfort and encourage readers into accepting Death when He comes. The underlying theme that can be extracted from this poem is that death is just a new beginning. Dickinson deftly reassures her readers of this with innovative organization and management, life-like rhyme and rhythm, subtle but meaningful use of symbolism, and ironic metaphors.
... imagination is sometimes more excessive than the action on the screen. After the application of Williams’ “theory” to David Creonenberg’s film Shivers, it is apparent that the spectator’s personal perception of the action (or inaction) is more the cause of the bodily reaction that Williams is referring to, rather than the objective excess on the screen. Ultimately, various characteristics of Williams’ arguments are true, but as a film theory in general, “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre and Excess” needs further research and flexibility in order to be both relative to all “body” genre films, and applicable to all unique spectators.
Christopher Nolan’s 2010 action thriller Inception provides a discerning outlook into the specificities of human thought processes and dream meaning through exceptional cinematography, labeling it an exemplar of filmmaking. The film follows the ambitious corporate thief Dom Cobb as he attempts to infiltrate a man’s mind and place an idea through the act of inception. Employing “dream sharing”, Cobb controls both the appearance and feel of the subconscious world, but at the alarming cost of being trapped should he fail his mission. Nolan brilliantly combines mise-en-scéne elements of setting and sound design, with inimitable cinematography and editing styles to project the dream world on a film medium, narrating a story that reveals the blurred line between fantasy and reality. By doing so, the film builds upon traditional conventions of moviemaking while developing its own style and motifs that are remarkably distinctive.